University Grants Commission enacts an annual farce as colleges take regulator lightly

Hyderabad: University Grants Commission (UGC), the apex regulator of the higher education in the country said that it is taking a serious view of the Higher Educational Institutions (HEIs) retaining the original certificates of the faculty members. It also warned the HEIs asking to strictly observe and comply the same.

However, faculty members of various colleges and institutions running the undergraduate and postgraduate courses say, "Hardly, any of the HEIs in the two Telugu states are taking the UGC with any seriousness."

Speaking to The Hans India, Ramachandran (name changed) a senior faculty member of a local engineering college said, "The college management in Hyderabad had offered an increase in the salary. I quit my job at a college in Anantapur district of Andhra Pradesh and joined the new college. But, it was not even three months that I was shown the door, once the affiliation process was completed. My original certificates are still with the college," he added.

Now Ramachandran is searching for new opportunities in Bengaluru. Similar is the situation of four more faculty members with doctoral degrees were asked to go after the college had submitted its appraisals for the online affiliation, recognition and accreditation processes of the UGC, All Indian Council for Technical Education (AICTE) and National Board of Accreditation (NBA).

Telangana Schools Technical College's Employees Association (TSTCEA), A Santosh Kumar said that such circulars from the UGC and AICTE have become an annual farce, as there any number of cases of faculty members struggling to get back their original degree certificates from the employer institutions.

The colleges don't take the circulars seriously and there are en masse violations. There were cases in which, the faculty members have written to the UGC and AICTE to intervene and direct the college managements to return their certificates.

All that the UGC and AICTE have been doing was that they simply forward the grievance or complaint received from the faculty members to the colleges concerned. And, washing away their hands with a letter asking to take the necessary steps to address the same.

The UGC circular like the AICTE said "every HEI mandatorily is required to issue employment contracts clearly specifying all the terms and conditions in accordance with the stipulated norms of the UGC and other statutory bodies concerned."

Kumar said this rule has been strictly observed and complied by less than 50 per cent out of about 180 private colleges affiliated to the Jawaharlal Nehru Technological University (JNTU), Hyderabad. And, the situation in the JNTUs in Andra Pradesh is no different and these grass violations of the UGC and AICTE norms by the colleges have been going right from the days of the United AP, he opined.